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NASA NTRS · 20260004672

Assessing the Adhesion of Nanofibrous PVDF-HFP as Passive Thermal Control Coatings for the Extraterrestrial Storage of Cryogenic Propellants

Chieloka Ibekwe·Adrien Neveu·Nan An·Xuanjie Wang·Jason Hartwig·Adam Swanger·Shankar Narayan
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Abstract

Cryogenic propellant passive thermal management techniques in space are essential complements to active thermal management methods, helping reduce absolute dependence on the latter. Particularly, materials with superior optical properties (high solar reflectance and infrared emittance) would be beneficial for passive thermal control to reject most of the incident solar radiation and enhance thermal emission from the storage tank, leading to self-cooling. We developed a nanofibrous, porous passive thermal control material by electrospinning polyvinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) co-polymer onto an aluminum foil substrate. The material exhibits a very high solar reflectance (>99%) and infrared emittance (~86%) when characterized in the ultraviolet-visible-near infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths. This study focuses on the adhesion of the nanofibrous PVDF-HFP to the substrate. We incorporated in-lab fabricated and commercial adhesives, under normal room conditions, between the nanofibers and the aluminum foil substrate to improve their adhesion. Some samples were also exposed to space-like conditions – vacuum and thermal cycling, to investigate their effects on the strengths of adhesives. Subsequently, adhesion peel tests were conducted on all the samples to assess the peel strengths of the bonds. Peel test strengths after space environment conditioning of the adhesives were generally higher than those observed in the pristine, unaged samples. The results are discussed in this study.

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Chieloka Ibekwe, Adrien Neveu, Nan An, Xuanjie Wang, Jason Hartwig, Adam Swanger, Shankar Narayan. 2026-04-01. Assessing the Adhesion of Nanofibrous PVDF-HFP as Passive Thermal Control Coatings for the Extraterrestrial Storage of Cryogenic Propellants. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20260004672

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